Two years ago, the demand for foreign luxury goods was on a downward spiral. Small mom and pop importers were closing their doors, the lowered value of the dollar was making it almost impossible to make importing goods worth while, and American companies focused on stocking their businesses with American products.

In January 2009, retail container traffic at US ports was down 14.6%, according to the Port Tracker report released that March. At the time, Jonathan Gold, NRF vice president for supply chain and customs policy, said, “…this year’s numbers are going to remain well below last year because sales are still slow and most economists aren’t seeing a recovery before the second half of the year at the earliest. Careful inventory management is a key to survival for retailers in the economic times we’re going through.”

But much has changed in the past two years. In fact, the Global Port Tracker report, which was released by the NRF and Hackett Associates this month, shows a 13% rise in import cargo volumes for March 2010 compared to the figures from 2009.